“Lots of people act well, but very few people talk well, which shows that talking ismuch the more difficult thing of the two, and much the finer thing also.”

“If there is anything more annoying in the world than having people talk about you, it is certainly having no one talk about you.”

“If it was my business, I wouldn't talk about it. It is very vulgar to talk about one's business. Only people like stockbroker's do that, and then merely at dinner parties.”

“Lady Bracknell. Good afternoon, dear Algernon, I hope you are behaving very well.Algernon. I’m feeling very well, Aunt Augusta.Lady Bracknell. That’s not quite the same thing. In fact the two things rarely go together.”

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

“If one plays good music, people don't listen, and if one plays bad music people don't talk.”

“It's tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man', says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”